


All My Senses Come To Life (Cause You're The Only One)

by TheIfInLife



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: (Again kinda), (kinda), Alternate Universe - College/University, Bottom Harry, F/F, F/M, Flower Child Harry, Friends to Lovers, Harry with Bangs, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Multiple Orgasms, Mutual Pining, Punk Louis, Rough Sex, Virgin Louis, mentions of bottom louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:24:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5599612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIfInLife/pseuds/TheIfInLife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I swear your life is a cheesy rom com."</p><p>"Oh and yours isn't?" Liam banters back, voice going deep like he's narrating a film. "Punk boy leaves home in search of something new. He never though he'd find love with the boy who wears crop tops and heeled boots. They pine after each other for a ridiculous amount of time until the best, most attractive character, Liam, comes to the rescue - "</p><p>"Really Liam?"</p><p>"Okay, okay. Point is, you and him, you're meant to be."</p>
            </blockquote>





	All My Senses Come To Life (Cause You're The Only One)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LSFOREVER](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LSFOREVER/gifts).



> Hello! First of all, I want to apologize for how dreadfully late this is. I was way more busy than I had anticipated when I signed up for this exchange. I really hope that you like the fic that I wrote for you. It doesn't stick as well to Your prompt as I'd hoped but I tried! Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments, good and bad.
> 
> Noteworthy - to the person who will undoubtedly comment and say that this isn't very Louis Centric, I stuck to the prompt. This is what my prompter wanted so please don't come complain. Additionally, there are certainly some inaccuracies as I'm from America.
> 
> Have a great read! :)

It’s December twenty-seventh when Louis leaves Doncaster in hopes that he made the right choice. Transferring to London in the middle of the school year is more risky than transferring at the start of the year, he’s been told that much by the lot at University Centre Doncaster, three times over. But he felt it with every passing day that he spent walking around that campus, there was nothing left for him there. He’d been to the rusty old gym every morning since he was a fresh faced eighteen year old with not a spot of ink on his skin and no trace of weariness in his eyes but time has changed.

Now, just three days after his twentieth birthday, he’s barely even the same person. After his gran passed, he decided to get a tattoo in remembrance of her and he sort of never stopped, easily getting addicted to the artwork on skin. His reputation kept worsening to the point where he couldn’t walk down the main street without people crossing over to the other side with sidelong glances. So he decided his time in Donny was up. Much to the dismay of his family, Louis  loaded up and set out for a new life in London.

The bag on Louis’ shoulder is digging into his skin with the weight of his clothes and he’s debating on how he’s actually going to open the door considering his hands are completely full of stuff. And then he remembers that the key that the nice lady from the transfers’ office had given him is shoved in his back pocket. Shit. Right as the laundry basket in Louis’ left hand slips from his grasp, falling to the ground and spilling his cleaning supplies everywhere, the door opens.

“Oh shit, mate, you scared the shit out of me.” A blonde lad with a thick Irish accent smiles at him, revealing his crooked teeth. “Here let me help you.”

“Thanks,” Louis offers, walking into the flat as the blonde guy helps him pick up his things. “Um, which room is mine?”

“It’s the one at the end of the hall on the left.” The Irish lad says. “Follow me.”

Louis follows him to the empty room and finally relieves the ache in his shoulder, dropping all of his stuff in the center of the room. He glances around and sees that it’s a standard room, not unlike the room he’d had back at University Centre Doncaster. There’s a desk in one corner, a four post bed against the wall and a dresser for his clothes. The closet seems a bit bigger than the one in his old room so that’s a plus.

“We just got the smell out.” The guy says behind him. Louis turns to face him, looking confused. “The guy who was here last semester was a mess. Not sure he cleaned his room or his body once the whole semester.”

“Well I’m not sure I’m much better, at least with the room thing.” Louis says with a chuckle.

“Me either mate.” He shrugs. “That’s why I invested in Fabreeze. Not sure if I have a floor under me clothes but it smells like chocolate in there.”

Louis laughs, feeling the awkward tension between them leave. He can already tell he’s going to like this guy. “’M Louis by the way.”

“Niall.” The guy smiles and then he looks panicked. “Oh shit! What time is it?!”

“It’s…” Louis’ voice trails off as he pulls out his IPhone to check the time. “fifteen after three.”

“Shit! I’ve got to go! I’ll see you later, Louis.” Niall rushes out and leaves Louis in the bland room to himself.

He spends two hours setting up his room. His clothes are shoved haphazardly into the drawers and his bed sheets are thrown onto the bed but his posters of George Best and Wayne Rooney are set up perfectly. And of course, his David Beckham poster is framed at the head of his bed. His pictures of his family are all situated on his desk and on the window sill. At his last school, he’d gotten a bit of trouble for having sentimental pictures out because it wasn’t ‘manly’ or some stupid shit like that. He doesn’t give a fuck though. Especially now that he’s three hours away from his mum and his sisters. Louis feels a twinge in his heart at the thought of not seeing his sisters for another few months. He lets it pass though, instead focusing on tacking his next tattoo sketch onto the board he put up above his desk.

“Sweet sketch. Did you do it?” A voice says behind him and Louis flinches.

“Jesus, I didn’t even hear you come in here.” Louis holds his palm to his chest, his heart still racing from the lad scaring him. “Um, anyways, no I didn’t do this. I can’t draw for shit. My friend from back in Doncaster did it. I’m thinking about getting it on my neck. Though I’m not completely sure, maybe on my ribcage. We’ll see. Nice sleeve. Did you get it here? In London I mean?”

Louis is so glad to see that one of his roommates has tattoos too hopefully that means his assumptions about this place being more accepting were true.

“Yeah, there’s this place about fifteen minutes out from here that’s sick. The artist is so talented. Look at this piece I got – ” He stops and lifts up his shirt to reveal a pair of red lips and wings. For a moment, Louis just gapes. The detail is amazing.

“Holy shit, that’s fucking _sick_!” Louis can’t even conceal his excitement. Suddenly he really, really needs another tattoo. “Was he expensive?”

“Nah, she’s not too bad, especially for how good she is.”

Louis nods, feeling bad for automatically assuming the tattoo artist was a male.

“So um, where is everyone else? There are supposed to be four of you right?” Louis asks, adjusting his pillow on his bed because he’s run out of things to do.

“Yeah. Niall is at his girlfriend’s apartment and Liam and Harry went out to go grocery shopping like three hours ago. Lord knows if they’ll be back before dark. Oh and I’m Zayn.”

 “Louis,” He says, shaking his hand. “So are you a second year too?”

“Yeah, we all are. Everyone in this building. Listen, I’m about to step out for a smoke break. You wanna join?”

For a moment, Louis glances around his room. He knows that if he stops unpacking and organizing his things now, he’ll never finish it. Everything seems to be in place however, so he decides he might as well. He’s not the hugest smoker in the world but there’s something about this Zayn guy that he really likes. He can tell they’re going to be good friends.

-

When he and Zayn come back in, nearly frozen to their bones, he practically gets tackled.

“Hi, I’m Liam; you must be our new roommate!” The boy with big brown eyes is at his side the second that he walks through the door. He can see someone else lingering in the background but Liam’s talking distracts him. “I’m so glad you’re here! We were a bit worried about finding a replacement since Smelly Sean left but – ”

“Wait, you guys literally called him Smelly Sean?” Louis interrupts, laughing at the ridiculousness.

“I told you, the lad was horrible.” Niall calls from the living room. He can hear the football game on but he doesn’t pay too much mind. He literally doesn’t have the energy to fangirl about football at the moment.

“You know it’s bad when our angel Liam here calls him that,” Zayn says, coming up behind Liam and patting him on the shoulder. He looks at Liam with this glint in his eye and immediately, Louis calls it.

“Shut up,” Liam pouts. “I still kind of feel bad for it…But anyway, yeah, welcome.” The lad’s eyes honestly kind of remind Louis of a puppy. He looks so innocent and pure.

“Okay well,” Louis sighs. “I’m gonna head to my room for a bit. Got to go take a selfie in my new room.”

“I like this guy!” Louis hears Niall yell as he walks back to his room.

Louis collapses on his bed the moment that he gets into his room. It’s been an exhausting day between leaving his sisters who wouldn’t stop crying and his mum who not so subtly reminded him that the best time to find The One is in college and he only has three years left. And then the three hour drive coupled with the two hour wait in the admissions office. He’s honestly right on the verge of sleep; he’s not above sleeping in his skinny jeans. But then there’s a knock on his door. He groans quietly but gets up to answer it anyway. As soon as he opens his door, he swears his jaw hits the floor.

The lad standing in front of him is easily the most unique and beautiful person that Louis’ ever seen. His long curly hair reaches just past his shoulders and his eyes are this shade of green that is enrapturing. He’s wearing a sheer black blouse and black skinny jeans with bright pink boots. And he’s holding a tray of sweets. Holy fucking shit.

“’M Harry,” The tall lad says, his cheeks tinged the sweetest shade of pink.

“You’re wearing pink boots.” Louis says dumbly. Because he has no brain at the moment apparently. He feels his stomach drop when Harry’s face clouds over with defensiveness.

“Fashion knows no gender.” He says, looking like he’s ready for a full on debate. Mentally, Louis is slapping himself.

“No, no, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Louis nearly pleads. This is not how he wants to start out with his (hot) roommate. “They’re sparkly, they caught my eye. Not that I was trying to, I’ve just never seen a guy who, but that’s not a bad thing, I was just trying to. Louis. My name is Louis.”

“Hi Louis,” Harry smiles and the cutest little dimples appear. God, could Louis be any more of an imbecile?

“Um, thanks for the sweets.” Louis takes the tray and sets it on his desk. This however, frees up the space between them and Louis feels a wave of awkwardness wash over him. He has to explain himself. “I’m not the judgmental type I swear, I wasn’t trying to say anything bad – ”

“It’s okay, Louis,” He smiles again. “I think it’s cute that you’re getting this flustered over it.”

“Thanks.” Louis responds awkwardly. “It’s just that, I left my last uni because people were judgmental dicks and I wanted to make sure I didn’t make you feel judged.”

Harry pulls him into a hug. At first Louis is a bit startled but there’s something about this guy that’s different, something that makes him hug Harry back even though they literally just met.

When Louis pulls back, he focuses on the tray of sweets that Harry brought.

“Sherbet Fountain and Jelly Babies,” He says offhandedly picking up the sherbet fountain. “I think you’re my new best friend.”

That night when his mum calls, he can barely contain his excitement.

“They’re all great,” He gushes to his mum while he’s in the stairway of their building. “Niall is a footie lover like me. Though I caught him saying he roots for Derby County, I’m going to have to show him the path of righteousness.”

“Well that just won’t do,” Jay laughs.

“And then I met Zayn. He’s cool as fuck, mum.” Louis pauses a moment and then grins victoriously when she doesn’t correct his language. “He’s got a sleeve on his arm and gauges. And we talked about awesome tattoo artists. And then there’s Liam. I’m not sure of much about him just yet. He has those kind of eyes that you can never say no to, I can already tell –”

“Is he cute?” Jay asks, all too hopeful.

“He’s not really my type.” Louis blows off the hint easily.

“You know, Louis, I’m convinced you don’t have a type.”

“Muuum,” Louis groans. Why are parents so set on marrying their children off in uni? Call him crazy, but Louis thinks it should be more based on the education part of things.

“I’m only saying dear. How are your other roommates? You said there were five right?”

“No, mum, I’m the fifth roommate.” He explains for what feels like the thirtieth time. “I live with four other guys.”

“Right, sorry. Tell me about the last one then.”

Louis cringes thinking about the awkward first meeting he had with Harry, the lad who clearly is very opinionated and open. For a moment, Louis envies him just a bit. When Louis’d gotten people saying shit about him, he transferred schools. But Harry immediately stood his ground when he thought that Louis was trying to insult him (which Louis still hates himself for).

“You there dear?” Jay’s voice breaks through his train of thought.

“Oh yeah, he’s…he’s great.”

“Oh?” She asks delicately. Louis doesn’t quite like the tone of her voice.

“Yeah he’s pretty chill.” Louis says lamely. “Anyways, I’ve got to go. Early start tomorrow and all that.”

“But tomorrow’s Sunday – ” She tries to interrupt but Louis adds a quick goodbye and then he hangs up.

It’s not that he doesn’t love his mum, he does. She’s pretty much the person that he loves the most in this world. Sometimes they’re just too much alike and he knew what was coming if he continued that conversation with her.

When he walks back into their flat, he sees Zayn and Liam sitting close together on the couch watching The X Factor and Harry’s in the kitchen cooking with his laptop sitting on the counter.

“Hey Lou!” He says when he sees Louis standing in the doorway. “This is our new roommate, Louis.”

As Harry turns his laptop around to reveal a girl that looks strikingly similar to him all Louis can think of is the nickname. He waves to the girl on the screen and smiles.

“This is my sister, Gemma.” Harry informs, smiling so that his dimples come out and then he turns back to the chicken that’s sizzling in the pan.

“You guys look a lot alike,” Louis says because it’s the only thing he can think of. He sort of wants to scream because he’s usually so good at being smooth and impressive but all that flies out the window when he’s around Harry. And it’s only the first day; he’s so fucked.

Gemma laughs and agrees. Louis hops up onto the counter in the little bit of space that’s left. He notices that the corner of Harry’s mouth twitches up like he’s trying not to smile.

“So whatcha making Curly?” The nickname rolls off of Louis’ tongue naturally.

“Fajitas.”

“Well they smell delicious.” Louis comments. He’s resisting the urge to reach in the pan and snag a piece of chicken.

“They’ll taste delicious too. Our Harry here should be a Culinary Arts major, I’m telling you.” Liam yells into the kitchen from his spot next to Zayn.

“I think I’m good with my current major, thanks.” But Harry obviously gets a little giddy over Liam’s statement.

“What is your current major?” Louis asks.

“Gender and Sexualities.” Harry says simply. Louis sort of wants to hug him again.

“That’s cool,” Louis nods and then he decided fuck it. He sneaks a piece of the chicken from the pan when Harry turns to the fridge. When his finger accidentally grazes too heavily on the bottom of the pan, he yells out in pain and the piece drops on the floor.

He hears Gemma mumble, ‘I saw that!’ right as Harry turns around.

“What’d you do?”

“I burned my finger,” Louis pouts, holding it out to Harry.

Harry glances disapprovingly at the piece of chicken on the floor and then back to Louis. “You know, maybe you shouldn’t try to steal food straight from the pan.”

Louis just continues pouting.

“C’mere,” Harry says. He turns the cold water on and pulls Louis off of the counter. Harry holds Louis’ hand under the cold water and Louis is acutely aware of how close he is standing to him. “You need to hold the burn under there for at least five minutes.”

“Five whole minutes?!” Louis pouts even further.

“You did this to yourself,” Harry reminds but Louis can see that he’s smiling even if he’s trying not to. “Hold on, I’ll go get you some paracetamol from the loo.”

When he’s gone, Gemma bursts into laughter. “You’re really milking this aren’t you?”

Louis’ face turns a bright pink. He’s not being obvious is he?

“It’s okay,” Gemma says after Louis doesn’t reply. “Harry makes a very good nurse.”

A few moments later, Niall comes bursting through the door, laughing loudly at something on his phone. When he sees Gemma, he runs over to say hi.

“Gems! How’s it going?”

They carry on a conversation but Louis tunes out when Harry returns with a few tablets and gets him a cold bottle of water. He sets it next to the sink and then he bends over to pick up the tainted piece of chicken. Louis most certainly does not check out his tiny, pert little bum.  And it most certainly does not make Louis bite his lip and turn away. No, that doesn’t happen at all.

“Has it been five minutes yet?” Louis complains.

“Not yet Lou,” Harry drops the nickname again and Louis can’t honestly hold back a giddy smile.

“What’d ya do mate?” Niall asks, looking inquisitively at Louis’ finger that’s still held under the cold water.

“I tried to steal a piece of chicken and burned my finger.” Louis hangs his head.

“Oh shit and you still have all your appendages?! I did that once and Harry nearly chopped me finger off.” Niall looks to his hand like he’s reliving a horror.

“You can take your hand out from the water now,” Harry says and then he turns to Niall. “And that was because you’d just got back from hanging out with Jade. I know what you little nasties do. And plus, Louis’ new, I’ll cut him some slack.”

Louis swallows the pills, barely refraining from spewing his water everywhere at the comment that Harry made. When he’s finished, he looks to Harry.

“It still hurts.”

“Niall, can you go grab some aloe vera and a bandage from the bathroom? Gemma, I’ll call you back later. Or I’ll text you. Bye, love you!”

When he finishes hanging up, Harry does some stuff with the stove while Niall brings back the green cooling stuff. He sets it on the counter and then goes over to the fridge to pull out the cheese and other assorted things that Louis quits paying attention to.

“You’re helpless,” Harry laughs before grabbing the stuff.

Harry spreads the gel on Louis’ finger carefully. He holds onto Louis’ hand like it’s fine china. When he’s finished putting the gel on, he cautiously places the bandage on his finger.

“There,” Harry smiles, meeting Louis’ eyes.

“Thank you.” Louis says sincerely.

“Does it still hurt?” Harry’s voice goes gentle and Louis bites his lip.

“Yeah,” And okay, so maybe he is milking it a little.

“Would a joke make it feel better?” Harry asks, a chorus of groans let out as soon as Harry said the words.

“I would love to hear a joke.” Louis says, ignoring all the yelling of protest coming from the other boys.

“What do you call a pile of cats?” Harry’s face goes so animated that Louis almost starts laughing before the joke is even finished.

“I don’t know.”

“A meow-tain!” Harry looks so pleased with himself despite the other boys yelling about how he can’t tell a decent joke to save his life. Louis however, cracks up.

“That’s hilarious!” Louis tells him.

“Attention!” Harry announces loudly, a serious look painted on his face. “Louis is now my favorite flat mate. The rest of you are all now tied for least favorite. And also, dinner is ready.”

“Harry, how could you wound me so?” Liam fake cries as he comes into the kitchen.

They spend the rest of the night watching some shit telly and playing Fifa. Louis quickly figures out that Harry is not good at football, Liam is decent, and Niall’s a challenge. Zayn retreats to his room not too long after dinner. Louis gets the introverted, need time alone type of vibe from him. By the time he goes to bed that night, he knows for sure that he made the right decision transferring here. This is the perfect fit for him.

-

Louis wakes up  the next morning and stumbles tiredly to kitchen, ready to make himself a nice bowl of cereal.

“Oh you must be the new guy!” A distinctly female voice jolts him out of his tired haze. The girl standing in the kitchen with a cup of something, probably coffee by the smell of it, smiles like it’s not weird that she’s there. Louis is really glad that he decided to throw on sweatpants before emerging from his bedroom.

“Yeah.” Louis smiles at her even though he has no idea who she is. “I’m Louis.”

“Perrie.” She says, tucking a piece of her pink highlights behind her ear. “I live across the hall.”

“Who’s she kidding?” Another female comes strolling into the kitchen from the living room. “She pretty much lives here. I’m Jade, Niall’s girlfriend. She’s my roommate.”

“Oh,” Louis says in recognition. “Well cool.”

“So where are you from?” Perrie asks as she sips from her steaming mug.

“Doncaster.” Louis supplies, going into the fridge and getting out the milk for his cereal.

“I thought that you had a bit of a northern accent.” This time it’s Harry who talks. He comes into the kitchen wearing nothing but tiny yellow shorts and his hair looks a bit disheveled but still perfect somehow. “You’re pretty far from home, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Louis busies himself with pouring the flakes into a bowl while Harry starts a kettle on the stove. “Three hours.”

The other girls have slipped away by the time that Louis looks up from pouring. He puts the milk and cereal back and then takes a seat on the counter again. It’s entertaining watching Harry flit around the kitchen, doing a bit of washing up that was left from dinner and also making himself some breakfast.

“So would it be too invasive for me to ask why you transferred?” Harry asks between bites of toast.

“Um,” Louis is wondering how exactly he wants to phrase it when the kettle starts whistling.

Harry grabs two mugs from the cabinet and sets them on the counter space next to Louis. He looks up and blushes a little when he sees that Louis is watching him. He raises an eyebrow and asks,

“How do you take your tea?”

“Milk, no sugar,” Louis recites like it’s the national anthem. After a beat he adds, “You’re the best Hazza.”

“You’re one of those weird people that drink it with no sugar.” He observes as he pours in the milk. “My mum is like that.”

“I reckon your mum and I would get on great.” Louis says because he doesn’t realize how it sounds. The moment the words are out, he wishes he could take them back. Harry looks at him a bit shocked before he laughs loud, immediately throwing a hand over his mouth.

“Too bad for you, she’s married.” Harry says as he hands Louis his cup.

“Well,” Louis sighs, watching Harry put the things away. “That’s fine by me considering I generally don’t go for birds.”

“Oh really?” Harry seems genuinely surprised, looking at Louis incredulously as he shuts the refrigerator door. “You’re gay?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Louis jokes. “Don’t you think it’s a little soon for this conversation?”

“Oh my god,” Harry’s face goes completely pale. “You’re right, I’m so sorry. That was rude of me – ”

“Harry,” Louis stops him, setting his empty bowl in the sink. “I’m kidding.”

“Oh thank god,” He breathes a sigh of relief and then swats at Louis’ arm. “You jerk! I was already constructing a four page apology letter in my head.”

“An apology letter, honestly?” Louis teases. When Harry simply sticks his tongue out, Louis decides right then and there that Harry is his favorite. “Anyway, I mean. I don’t really know if there’s an exact label to describe it. I’m like this weird mix of sexually attracted to both genders but romantically attracted to men while also not wanting to not put a label on it because I don’t really want to exclude girls all together but I see myself with a guy. So basically I’ve decided that all the labels can go fuck themselves.”

“I think that’s sort of similar to how Perrie is.” Harry nods. “Except with girls instead. She’s dating her other roommate Jesy who I believe is demisexual. But you know, I think it’s cool that you can embrace the fact that you aren’t cookie cutter. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to explain to people that sexuality isn’t black and white, it’s entirely grey.”

“Literally same! My mum has the hardest time grasping that. So I pretty much just said that I’m gay so that it’d be easier for her to understand.” Louis gestures wildly with the hand that isn’t firmly grasping his mug of tea.

“You should take a sexualities course sometime, I think you may really enjoy it.” Harry smiles cutely.

“Will do,” Louis chuckles lightly. “Do the other guys give you trouble? For your sexuality, I mean.”

“You mean our flatmates? No, never. They’ve all known I was gay from day one. I think the giant rainbow flag in my room was a giveaway.” Harry giggles fondly. “You don’t ever have to worry about being judged in this flat. Especially about something like that. We are who we are, you know? And at the end of the day, you love who you love.”

-

He doesn’t do much for New Year’s. Niall and Harry go out, practically begging him to go with but Louis declines. It’s not that he’s opposed to drinking he just doesn’t feel up to it. If he’s being honest, he’s struck with a bit of homesickness. This is the farthest he’s ever been away from his family and the next chance that he’ll actually be able to go home will be in March for Spring Break. He won’t admit that though, instead he spends the night in Skyping with his sisters and watching Netflix.

It’s nearing one in the morning when Louis’ stomach grumbles at him. Niall and Harry aren’t back yet and Louis doesn’t expect them back for at least another hour, if not more. He grumpily gets out of bed, nearly tripping on the sweats that have been strewn across his floor already. Louis’ mind flashes to their old roommate, Smelly Sean, and he chuckles into the quiet.

When he makes it to the fridge, Louis opens it and swears he’s been blinded by a thousand suns. Finally, his eyes adjust and he spends far too long debating on what he wants. He bites his lip mischievously, grabbing one of Harry’s fancy Greek yogurts. When he fishes a spoon out of the drawer, he decides he’s going to go check on Liam and Zayn. They didn’t go out drinking with Niall either. Apparently Liam has kidney problems which prevent him from drinking too much and Zayn was quick to offer staying in with him. Suddenly, Louis isn’t too sure that he wants to go check on them. Curiosity gets the best of him though, so he continues, tip toeing to Liam and Zayn’s side of the flat. He peeks into Liam’s room and finds the room completely empty. He briefly wonders if Liam left while he was busy talking to his sisters. Louis keeps sneaking down to see if maybe Zayn had decided to go out as well. For a moment Louis feels like a creep. He barely knows these lads and here he is, sneaking about in the night. But, if he finds that they’re both gone, he may as well have a nice house warming wank. A sadness settles over him when he peeks into Zayn’s room and sees a lump in his bed. No wanking for him then.

Louis audibly gasps when he accidentally bumps the door and causes the dim light from the bathroom to flood into the room and illuminate the bodies – as in two – on Zayn’s bed. Immediately Louis can spot Liam wrapped up in Zayn’s arms. Zayn’s lips are pressed loosely to the side of Liam’s face and Liam looks the most peaceful that he’s ever seen the lad. Granted, they haven’t seen each other more than a handful  of times but still. It’s a sweet sight and Louis feels a prick of jealousy against his skin; when will it be his time to cuddle someone through the night? And not need messy hand jobs as a prerequisite.

-

Over the next month, Harry and Louis only get closer. Louis gets closer with the other boys as well. He and Niall are nearly always having a laugh about something. And he learns that Liam is the over achiever student who has never missed a single lecture in his year and a half at uni. Zayn still has that air of mystery about him so they haven’t talked too much since the first day but they’re still friends. But the level of friendship that he has with Harry is bar none. He honestly spends most of his time in Harry’s room when he’s in the flat and they’re nearly always bantering about something. It doesn’t take long for the true colors of Louis’ personality to come shining through. And it doesn’t take long for Louis to realize that he is brewing a crush on his curly flatmate.

“How was your lecture?” Louis asks when he sees that Harry is finally back.

“Good,” He responds, dropping his things on the desk. “Good to see that you haven’t moved in three hours.”

“Well my eleven o’clock got canceled.” Louis mock-defends. “And I was stricken with grief at the fact that my best friend abandoned me like yesterday’s rubbish.”

“I didn’t abandon you,” Harry comes to sit on his own bed, sighing tiredly. He glances to Louis with this look that makes his breath hitch. “Technically, you could have come to class with me if you really wanted to.”

“Oh yeah, and do you want to attend my Athletics in the Workplace class with me tomorrow –”

“Oi!” Niall sticks his head into Harry’s room. “Will you two stop flirting for two seconds; I need to talk to Louis.”

“Ughh,” Louis groans but gets up anyway.

“See you’re abandoning me again!” Harry calls after him, laughing when Louis mimics him childishly.

When Louis follows Niall to the living room, he sees Zayn and Liam cuddled up on the couch. That’s sort of their thing, Louis has come to realize. Niall sits down and leans in, whispering,

“Okay so this Saturday is Harry’s birthday. I think we should throw a party. A real surprise party on Friday, he’ll never see it coming.” He waggles his eyebrows at Zayn and Liam and then turns to Louis. “And I think you should be the one to keep him company while we set up the flat.”

“What? Why me?” It’s not that Louis is opposed but the way that Niall says it, so direct like it simply can’t be anyone but Louis.

“Because he follows you around like a lost puppy.” Zayn says from his spot tucked under Liam’s arm.

“And that leaves Zayn, Liam, and I and probably Jade, Jesy, Perrie, and Leigh back here to get things ready. He usually likes drinking the really fancy stuff but I think he’ll be okay if we just get some vodka, whiskey, and obviously rum – ” Niall is interrupted by Louis who’s still stuck on the first order of business.

“Wait, what do you mean he follows me around like a lost puppy?”

“Oh christ,” Zayn groans.

“Well,” Liam adds in what Louis’ come to call his ‘teacher’ voice which can’t mean anything good. “To be fair, Louis also follows Harry around like a lost puppy.”

“Do you think that beer would be a good choice too?” Niall continues on as if he’s not even paying attention to what the others are saying. To be honest, he’s probably not. Niall is serious about his alcohol.

“Harry doesn’t really like beer,” Louis finds himself saying. It’s crazy how quickly you get to know someone when you live with them. And then he turns to Liam. “What do you mean I follow him around like a lost puppy? I most certainly do not; I think that you Liam are jealous because he likes to tell me jokes.”

It was a shot in the dark and judging by their faces, it didn’t go over well at all.

“Yeah, you’re no help.” Niall decides. “Go on back to Harry, I’ll just text you when I need you to keep him distracted outside of the flat.”

“Offended!” Louis calls but he goes easily. He hates organized planning anyway. When he gets back to Harry’s room, he flops on the bed, right on top of Harry.

“Oof,” Harry lets out and then he relaxes. “What did Niall want?”

“To show me his fap book comprised entirely of pictures of Darren Bent.” Louis says with a completely straight face.

“The forward for Derby?” Harry laughs loudly and Louis feels accomplished.

“Aw! Hazza, you know something about footie!” Louis dramatically places his hand over his chest. “I’m so impressed!”

“Shut up,” Harry pokes at Louis’ side teasingly. “I know about football, I’m just a shit player.”

“You just haven’t found the right person to practice with. An hour or so with me, and I’ll have you good enough for a club.”

“You sound like a straight guy trying to convert a lesbian.”

Louis can’t help but bellow out a laugh at that. “God, you’re so strange, I love it.”

-

Friday comes quicker than Louis is honestly prepared for. He hasn’t really thought of what exactly he’s going to do to keep Harry occupied out of the flat while the boys and Perrie, Jesy, and Jade set up the flat.

He’s manages to shove Harry in his car under the pretense of free green tea. However, he somehow fails to remember that the shop close to campus – the only one that carries Harry’s favorite – close early on the weekends.

“Damn,” Harry sighs, letting his hand fall from the handle of the shop. “I could always head back to the flat and make us some hot chocolate.”

The way that Harry’s eyes fall on Louis, it’s like he finds something there. It causes the corners of Louis’ mouth to perk up subconsciously. And then he remembers that going back to the flat is strictly off limits until he gets the okay text from one of the boys.

“Um,” Louis wracks his brain trying to come up with something. Suddenly, an idea dawns on him. “You know what we should do instead?”

“What?” Harry responds so eagerly like the mischief doesn’t even bother him. Which makes Louis’ heart grow even fonder.

“We should go try that new frozen yogurt place a few blocks from campus. My treat.” Louis hopes that Harry goes for it because if he says no and Louis still stalls, it’ll be obvious that  he’s hiding something.

“Sure!” Harry agrees easily. “I’ve heard they have good cheesecake bites.”

“We’re about to find out!”

When they get there, Louis piles as many flavors and candies as he possibly can into his bowl while Harry gets a simple vanilla with strawberries and cheesecake bites into his. Harry’s cheeks pink just slightly when Louis insists on paying and Louis swears he hears angels sing.

They sit at a table, just eating and laughing. Louis swears it’s the best time he’s had in a long, long time. Oh god, he likes Harry way more than he originally thought that he did.

“Gemma just texted me a long birthday text.” Harry says softly as he’s looking down at his phone.

“Oh?” Louis comments, trying to keep composure. Gemma knows about the party, she was invited. Sadly, she couldn’t make it because of work commitments but he keeps his tone light, ready to cover if she accidently let the surprise party out.

“Yeah.” Harry’s tone is sad, Louis realizes.

“Are you okay?” Louis reaches over to lightly press his fingers against Harry’s wrist. He doesn’t even realize that he’s doing it, and that the touch might be unwelcome, until his hand is already there. Harry doesn’t react negatively though; in fact he gives Louis this wide eyed look of endearment.

“Um,” Harry says, like he’s lost his train of thought. “I just miss m’ family.”

“Oh, I totally understand. We’re both pretty far from home.”

“Yeah.” Harry takes a bite of his frozen yogurt. “I sort of moved away because of my family though.”

He must see the concerned look on Louis’ face because he eagerly continues.

“Not like in a bad way. More like.” His talking slows down even more and Louis’ come to realize that he only does that when he’s nervous or talking about subjects that are close to his heart. “Back in Holmes Chapel I was always known as Gemma’s little brother. Everywhere I went. Almost no one saw me as just Harry. So I came here because I couldn’t go through Uni with the same reputation. I know that probably sounds selfish –”

“No,” Louis is quick to say. “That’s not selfish. You wanted to be your own independent person. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Louis emphasizes his words with a large bite of the concoction he made. “And for the record, I think of Gemma as ‘Harry’s older sister’ if that’s worth anything.”

Harry finds this absolutely hilarious. Pride swells within Louis and he hears his own laughter ring out and mix with Harry’s.

“Oh, um,” Harry says when the laughter has finally died down. People are staring at them but Louis doesn’t care. “You’ve got some frozen yogurt on your chin.”

Louis covers his slight embarrassment by making a funny face as he sticks his tongue out to swipe up the froyo. Harry giggles into the back of his hand.

“You missed it.” Harry says. When Louis stretches his tongue down as far as he can and still misses, Harry scoots forward. “I’ll get it.”

Something clouds over Harry’s face when his thumb swipes away the mess. Louis lets out a shaky breath when he sees Harry’s eyes drift to his lips. Louis’ eyes flutter shut on their own accord. He nearly jumps when he finally feels Harry’s lips touch his. Something clicks in Louis. Everything felt right. Harry’s kisses were practically a mirror of his personality. Soft, yet confident; he held the side of Louis’ face like he knew exactly what he was doing.

It wasn’t that Louis didn’t know what he was doing. He’d kissed tons of blokes in clubs, on dance floors, in his dorm room. But never someone like Harry. He had never kissed someone that he actually felt something for. This was a whole new playing field.

Right as Harry’s tongue traced along Louis’ bottom lip, Louis’ obnoxiously loud ringtone. The lyrics to Little Einstein Remix blare, making both of them startle apart. Niall’s name flashes on the screen and suddenly Louis remembers that there’s a party waiting for Harry back at their flat.

“I’m gonna take this,” Louis says, wiping at the wetness on his lips. Harry nods a light pink dusting across his cheeks as he watches Louis step outside. “Hello?”

“Mate, I texted you like three times. Don’t you know the birthday sex comes after the party?” Niall laughs at his own joke. Louis usually comes up with comebacks when the boys tease them about their flirtationship but this time he comes up with nothing.

“Oh um. Yeah. Sorry. We’re on our way back now.” Louis’ voice comes out weird and he knows immediately that Niall can tell. He doesn’t give him a chance to comment on it though because he hangs up soon after.

There’s a weird tension between them when they settle in his car. Harry isn’t saying anything and Louis wouldn’t even know what to say. They ride back to the flat in silence. Louis is mentally in hysterics by the time that they get there.

Even still, Louis pulls out his phone. He trails behind Harry enough for the lad not to notice that he’s being filmed. Harry unlocks the door and honestly screams when everyone jumps out to yell “SURPRISE!” It’s the most hilarious thing that Louis has ever witnessed.

“Did you know about this?” Harry turns to ask Louis. Louis smiles sheepishly, his cheeks tint at the eye contact with Harry. He shuts off the video.

It sounds silly but all he can think when he looks into the sea of green is _you kissed me, I kissed you, we kissed. We kissed. We actually fucking kissed!_

Niall kidnaps Harry, probably on a mission to get him as smashed as possible. Louis only actually knows a handful of people that are in the flat and his mind is currently too distracted to mingle. So he takes a few shots and heads to Zayn’s room.  Zayn really seems dedicated to the whole “not drinking because Liam can’t” thing. It’s sweet.

“Can I come in?” Louis asks as he comes into Zayn’s room.

“Hey man. I was about to head out for a smoke. Wanna come? You don’t seem too inebriated yet.”

“We literally just got here.” Louis nods, buttoning up the coat that he was just about to take off.

“You haven’t seen The Niall in action yet.” Liam yawns, pausing the Netflix. It looks like they were watching some romantic comedy which Louis makes sure to file away in his brain to make fun of them later for.

It’s cold when they lean up against the brick wall of their building. Louis doesn’t say much when he takes a cigarette from Zayn and he doesn’t say anything when Zayn lends him a flame. Mostly, he just watches his breath float away and mingle with the cold air of the night.

“So what happened with Harry?” Zayn asks.

“How do you know something happened with Harry? I literally haven’t seen you at all today.”

“Because,” He takes a drag and lets it out slowly. “You never come into my room if Harry’s home. And you look like something is bothering you.”

Louis takes inhales the smoke, exhaling as he talks. “We kissed.”

“That little shit finally took my advice.” Zayn whispers so lowly that Louis nearly missed it.

“Wait.” Louis nearly chokes on the smoke. “He talks about …”

“Well yeah. I mean, that’s what friends do. I talk to Harry about stuff with Liam.”

“So you and Liam are together then?” Louis says, mostly out of curiosity but also as a bit of a distraction. Based on the tension after their kiss, Louis isn’t sure he wants to know how exactly Harry feels.

“Liam and I have always been close.” Zayn says like it’s an actual answer. Louis just stares, waiting for the rest. “We grew up together. I moved to Wolverhampton when I was twelve. He didn’t have any friends and neither did I. We were perfect for each other then. And we’re perfect for each other now.”

“So you’re together?”

“Yes, Louis, jesus.” Zayn takes another drag, the cherry of the cigarette glowing a stark contrast to night outside. “Do you want to talk about the kiss? Why exactly didn’t you like it?”

“Oh, I liked it.” Louis admits, trying not to get nervous.

“Then what’s the problem? Why are you all mopey?” Zayn tosses the cigarette on the ground, smashing it out with the tip of his shoe.

“Don’t ask me, I don’t know what Harry’s problem is.”

“Oh, Harry doesn’t have a problem with it that I can assure you.” As Louis takes one last drag of the cigarette, Zayn continues. “You’re just going to have to talk to him because he’s been fangirling over you since the day you moved in and I doubt he’s changed his mind over a kiss.”

By the time that they get back inside, it’s immediately obvious that Harry is feeling the effects of however much alcohol he’s consumed. Louis is kinda buzzed from the shots that he took but he’s nowhere near as drunk as Harry is.

“Boobear!” Harry yells the moment that he sees Louis enter the kitchen. “I heard your mum call you that once through the phone.”

“Your mum calls you Boobear?” Niall laughs from somewhere else in the room but Louis isn’t paying attention to anything other than the look on Harry’s face as he stalks closer to Louis.

“You,” Harry points, poking Louis’ nose when he gets close enough, “have really nice lips. Dance with me?”

Louis nods, motioning for Niall to turn up the music. They make it to the living room before Harry stops them. Harry turns with his back facing Louis and starts grinding on Louis. He may have a cute little bum but he sure knows how to make use of it. Louis’ cock takes immediate interest. Louis’ hands grip at Harry’s hips, guiding him along.

 _This is why you’re perfect for me._ Louis thinks to himself. With literally every single other person that he’s been with, especially the people he meets in clubs, they assume he’s a bottom. It’s not that he’s not open to trying it, but it gets a little frustrating with all people focus on is his arse simply because he’s got a big one. But here’s Harry, this guy who loves pink and sheer shirts and pig tails when he thinks no one else is home. This boy who has the kindest, most open heart that loves people for who they are, not who he expects them to be. The boy who is grinding his arse on Louis instead of grinding on Louis’ arse. It seems like such an insignificant thing but to Louis, it means more than he could ever explain. Harry, the boy who has his heart.

Harry stumbles into Louis’ chest after two songs, causing Louis to hold him in attempts to try and steady the drunk lad. “Thank you, Harry. Now I’m going to head to my room. Happy Birthday.”

Louis grabs a bottle of half empty bottle of vodka and trudges to his room. It’s not that he’s pouting really, he’s just kind of … pouting. He doesn’t understand why there’s a weird tension between them and he doesn’t know what he did wrong. Since Zayn seems completely convinced that Harry had feelings for him before the kiss, it had to have been something that Louis did.

By the time that Harry stumbles through his bedroom door, Louis is considerably more drunk. He can’t even deny the way his face lights up at Harry’s sudden appearance because who likes to drink alone?

“I’m a mess.” Louis admits out loud as Harry trips over some pants on the floor. Eventually Harry makes it to Louis’ bed; eyes glazed over and clearly smashed. He’s smiling so big though, that Louis has no choice but to smile back at him.

“We need to talk, mister.” Harry puts on a stern face as he climbs onto Louis’ bed. “You’re mad at me and it’s the worst.”

“No Hazza,” Louis slurs. “I’m not mad I’m just –”

“I’m gonna be sick,” Harry says suddenly, throwing a hand over his mouth.

Instantly, Louis kicks into gear. He helps Harry out of bed, both of them stumbling. When he kicks the bathroom door open, there are people trying to fuck but Louis yells at them to get out. Finally, he throws the toilet seat up and just in time because the next second, Harry’s emptying his stomach. Louis holds back the long, beautiful curls and rubs Harry’s back.

“Everything’s spinning,” Harry whines with tears spilling over.

“Close your eyes,” Louis says, trying to make sure that he’s not leaning too much on Harry. “Just close your eyes, it’ll help.”

“But –”

“I’ll take care of you.” Louis assures him.

There’s silence after that as Harry heaves. Louis should find it gross, the smell certainly is. But the feverish tint of Harry’s cheeks and the sleep gathering in the corner of his eyes does nothing but make Louis want to kiss him again. After he brushes his teeth.

“Lou,” Harry’s voice is raspy and rough. “I can feel you staring at me.”

“Can’t help it.” Louis whispers, eyes not daring to look away from the flutter of his eyelashes on his cheeks. “Want to kiss you again.”

“You do?” He cracks one eye open to look at him.

“Yeah.” Louis smiles stupidly big.

Finally, Harry gets up, having sobered up decently, and brushes his teeth. The party is still in full rage mode when they leave the bathroom but neither of them are interested in partying anymore. Harry follows Louis back to Louis’ room. They both get comfortable under the duvet, facing each other.

“So,” Harry says when it becomes obvious that Louis isn’t going to start the conversation that they need to have. “What happened?”

“Are you sure that you want to talk about this right now? I mean, we’re both a bit drunk and you just got finished puking –”

“I’m fine. The room’s stopped spinning. C’mon, don’t stall. Did you not like the kiss? Because it’s okay if you didn’t.”

“I liked it. You got weird.” Louis says, scratching at the _28_ on his knuckles.

“You got weird!” Harry insists. “Oh my god. Are we freaking out over nothing?”

“I think so.” Louis agrees.

They lay there for a few moments and then suddenly they’re both laughing hysterically. This time it’s Louis who, biting back his nerves, leans forward and captures Harry’s lips in a kiss. He becomes acutely aware that they are laying on a bed and kissing.

Kissing Harry has easily become Louis’ favorite thing. And he’s only done it twice. He loves the way that Harry stays right there even when they need a moment to breathe, a few centimeters away, letting their breath intermingle. Harry pushes back the duvet, climbing between Louis’ legs. Suddenly, this is a lot less innocent than Louis had been expecting.

Harry kisses him with a new fervor, pressing into it. Louis moans softly when Harry’s tongue gently prods at Louis’ lips. The vibe around them intensifies and Louis’ pretty sure that Harry can tell that he’s hard from where his thigh is pressed up against Louis’ crotch. Harry starts kissing down Louis’ neck and Louis can’t really help the sounds that escape his lips. He’s always been really turned on by the feel of a kiss on his neck.

“Lou,” Harry murmurs between kisses. “Want you to fuck me.”

Immediately, Louis freezes up. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, no, he wants to. He’s wanted to since he first met Harry. But…

“What’s wrong?” Harry asks, having picked up on the difference in Louis’ body language. “I can fuck you if that’s what you want –”

“No,” Louis interrupts. “It’s not that I don’t want that. I want both of those things but… well, you can’t laugh.”

“I wouldn’t.” Harry promises. He’s stopped kissing any part of Louis, now his green eyes are piercing into Louis’ with concern.

“I’m a virgin.” Louis admits. He’s not really ashamed of it or embarrassed. It’s more just that he cares what Harry thinks of him, probably more than he should.

“Really?” Harry looks shocked.

“Yeah. I mean. I’ve done some stuff…hand jobs mostly. I just haven’t found someone that I felt comfortable enough to do that with.”

“I understand that.” Harry sits back on his knees as he talks. “I’ve always kind of regretted that I lost my virginity to a boy on the football team back when I was barely sixteen. I thought he loved me. Turned out he just needed someone to experiment on.”

“’M sorry.” Louis says, wishing he could find that guy and break his neck. Harry deserves someone way better than that.

“It’s fine. I’m not worried about it anymore.”

Louis sits up, feeling weird that he’s still laying down while Harry’s sitting up. He feels just a little bit awkward now because he’s pretty much killed the mood with his little revelation. Part of him is kind of okay with that though because it would absolutely kill him to be intimate with Harry if Harry didn’t feel the same way. He may be thinking into things too much but wanting to kiss someone and wanting to be in a relationship with them are two totally different things.

“Sorry if I’ve ruined things.” Louis says, trying to keep his tone light. Harry sees right through that though.

“No, you haven’t ruined things.” Harry assures. “I had a great time today. I tried that new frozen yogurt place with my best friend, I kissed my best friend, and I had a surprise birthday party in which I got pleasantly drunk –”

“You were puking not too long ago.” Louis reminds him with a smile. Of course Harry would still count that as ‘pleasantly drunk’.

“Well you were there to take care of me so and now, if my best friend wouldn’t mind, I’d like some drunk cuddles.”

“I think your best friend would love that.”

Louis cuddles into Harry because he realized long ago that Harry loves being the little spoon. Harry’s head rests on the bicep of Louis’ arm. It may not be rational but Louis thinks he may want to get a tattoo there. Maybe just something simple like a band aid. Because that was the first real conversation that he’d had with Harry, the first time that he knew that they would be friends.

He falls asleep thinking of tattoos and Harry.

-

The next week is a little rough. Between his classes and working at the job that Louis’ found at a gym not too far out from campus (just janitorial work, but they say you have to start somewhere) he’s barely had enough time to make sure there’s food in his stomach and clean clothes on his body. But finally, his night shift at the gym is finished and he’s free. It’s a Saturday so he knows that Harry will probably be in studying on his Psychology and Transgender class. Especially since Niall is spending the night with Jade instead of partying.

He’s been trying to psych himself up all day because he’s going to do it today. He’s going to ask Harry out. Louis has wanted to since Harry’s birthday party but he kept chickening out. It’s not that he’s really afraid that Harry will say no and it’ll make things awkward. Louis will be able to put on a front and pretend like he’s okay until he actually is.

Just as Louis had predicted, Harry is in his room, sitting on his bed with his thick textbook open. He’s reading, brows drawn in concentration. It’s hot. Louis also notes that Harry is so tall that some of his curls are plastered against the end of the gay pride flag taped up on Harry’s wall. For a moment, Louis just watches him; Harry clearly hasn’t realized that Louis is in his room. A wave of nerves washes over Louis as he thinks about what he’s about to ask Harry.

“Hey,” Louis starts. Great. His voice is already wavering with his confidence.

“Lou! Hey.” Harry looks up from his textbook with a huge smile on his face. “What’s up?”

“Oh nothing much…the sky.” Louis chuckles as dread washes over him. Oh god. Did he really just try to make that joke? Luckily, Harry finds literally every joke that’s over used and corny hilarious but still. “I’m going to go.”

“Are you okay?” Harry asks a quizzical look on his face. “You seem weird.”

“No. I’m not being weird. I’m just gonna go. Wash the dishes. Yup. Those plates need a good old fashioned scrubbing ha ha ha.” Louis laughs awkwardly as he side steps out of the room, muttering curses at himself.

He actually does the dishes. As he’s scrubbing each plate, he thinks of the amount of stupid that it takes for him to go in intending on earning a date and here he is, washing fucking dishes. He needs to go back to the gym and punish himself via squats.

“Are you…doing the dishes?” Liam comes into the kitchen with an empty cup to put into the water.

“Yeah. Yup. Here I am, doing the fucking dishes.” Louis shakes his head, still mad at himself.

“Is something wrong?”

“Can I talk to you outside?” Louis bursts. If he doesn’t talk to someone about this, he may just go insane.

Liam agrees, following Louis out the door. Once they’re out in the hallway, it’s like the gates burst open.

“Liam, tell me what to do. I have been trying to gather the courage to ask him out for a week now and every time I close up. This time I ended up doing the dishes. You’ve got to help me or next time I might end up cleaning the whole flat. What’s next after that? Cleaning the girls’ flat? I can’t do that. Women have such different living habits than men generally. I can’t clean their apartment, oh god Liam just tell me what to do! Don’t let me condemn myself to that life.”

“First of all, I just want to note that you are the most dramatic person I’ve ever met.” Liam smiles so that his eyes go crinkly as he ruffles at Louis’ hair. “But we’ve all decided that you’re perfect for each other. And you’ve got nothing to worry about. Just ask him.”

“Oh thanks, Lime. Really insightful there. I don’t know why I didn’t just think of that the first time.” Louis’ sarcasm makes Liam laugh so loud that it echoes through the hall. He hears movement on the other side of the girls’ flat and he’s pretty sure they’re eavesdropping. He doesn’t have the mind to care at the moment.

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Lou.” Liam says, bringing Louis’ attention back to the problem at hand.

“Tell me what Zayn did to ask you out.”

“Well actually, I asked Zayn.” Liam gets this look in his eye, a look that sometimes Louis thinks he sees in Harry’s eyes. Or at least he hopes. “We were in our last year before coming to Uni. He was over at my house, just like every Friday night except this time; I had spelled out, _Will You Be My Boyfriend,_ with rose pedals on my bed. His face was priceless. Zayn doesn’t cry over much but I got a tear or two out of him that day.”

“You beautiful shit!” Louis shoved at Liam playfully. “I swear your life is a cheesy rom com.”

“Oh and yours isn’t?” Liam banters back, voice going deep like he’s narrating a film. “Punk boy leaves home in search of something new. He never thought he’d find love with the boy who wears crop tops and heeled boots. They pine after each other for a ridiculous amount of time until the best, most attractive character, Liam, comes to the rescue –”

“Really, Liam?”

“Okay, okay. Point is, you and him, you’re meant to be.”

“You really think so?” Louis asks. His talk with Liam is really starting to rebuild the confidence that had previously been shattered.

“I’ve known Harry since the summer before we started here and I’ve never seen him so enraptured with someone like he is with you. His eyes light up, his body is always turned towards you, he talks about you so much that I’ve literally resorted to giving him candy if he goes through an entire conversation without talking about you. Just go in there and ask him.”

“Okay, shit, okay.” Louis takes a few calming breaths and then marches back into their flat with his chest puffed out and his head high. He walks straight into Harry’s room. “Harry, I have a question for you.”

“Yes?” Harry looks like he’s two seconds away from laughing and Louis realizes that it’s probably from the way that Louis is standing with his hands on his hips and his chest still puffed out. He deflates just a little.

“I’m going to the place, um,” fuuuuuuck. Louis looks out into the hallway. Liam is standing visible in the kitchen with a huge smile and two thumbs up. Okay, he can do this. “And I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go with me. As like a boyfriend. Well, if you want that. We can go on dates first before you decide. Or not at all. You know what? I think this carpet needs to be vacuumed, let me just go grab the –”

“Louis wait,” Harry jumps up from where he’s sat on his bed and grabs Louis’ arm to stop him from leaving. “Did you just ask me to be your boyfriend?”

“I’m telling you, there’s a spot there. I can vacuum it if you just –”

“Yes,” Harry says.

“Okay, just let me go grab it –”

“Shut up,” Harry smiles and then leans down to capture Louis’ lips in a kiss.

“Sorry,” Louis says when they pull apart. “’M not good with rejection, especially on big stuff.”

“Good thing I didn’t reject you then, _boyfriend_.” Harry’s dimples show and Louis can’t believe his luck. “Though, I think you’re right, this room could use a good vacuuming.”

“Oh my god,” Louis’ face goes red. “You’re never going to let me live that down are you?”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

The place, Louis later specified, ended up being VQ Bloomsbury since they are open 24 hours. He and Harry sit by the window. Harry orders a burger and Louis orders a fry up.

“So maybe I should have kept you worried a little longer. There’s a stain on one of my shirts…” Harry says through bits of his burger.

“You know, I’d rather leave another stain.” Louis tries. Harry gets it immediately, his eyes going wide and then he’s laughing around the food in his mouth. “Don’t choke!”

“I never do.” Harry says with a glint in his eye and suddenly, Louis is shifting and his pants are getting a little uncomfortable.

Throughout the rest of their date, there is a tension. Not the same kind of tension as there was after their first kiss. This time, it’s a sexual tension. Louis keeps rubbing his foot along Harry’s leg and Harry keeps licking his lips and maybe Louis’ reading too much into things but by the time they get out of there, he has a decently noticeable bulge in his jeans. It takes everything he has to not glance down to check if Harry’s in the same situation as they leave the restaurant.

Louis nearly attacks Harry the moment that they’re safely closed in Harry’s room. The two of them walk back toward Harry’s bed, each step in sync. When the back of Harry’s knees hit the bed, Harry sits down. When Louis tries to climb on top of him, Harry stops him.

“Wait,” Harry says, hand on Louis’ chest. “We should talk first.”

“What? Did I do something?”

“No,” Harry says as Louis sits down on the bed next to him. “Not at all, I just want to make sure that we’re like. On the same page. I don’t want us to do sexual stuff if we haven’t like actually talked about it. Does that make sense?”

“I mean yeah but you already know. I’m a virgin.” Louis supplies, trying not to let his cheeks heat up as his fringe falls down into his eyes.

“So all you’ve done is hand jobs? No blow jobs or anything further?”

“Nope.”

“Wow.” Harry says, pulling his hair back into a pony tail.

“What?” Louis tries not to get defensive with the way that Harry says it but he can’t help the sass that comes out. “Sorry I don’t spend my weekends off getting laid.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Harry backtracks. “I just meant like, I’ve wanted to suck you off since I first saw you standing there freaking out over the pink boots.”

In that moment, Louis is hit with another wave of _you’re so perfect_. Not because Harry wants to suck him off. Though that’s a pretty decent plus. No, he’s perfect because he knows exactly how to handle Louis when he gets like this.

“I’m sorry.” Louis apologizes, his face definitely more pink than it had been a few moments ago. “I didn’t mean to make you sound like a slut or anything.”

“It’s okay; I’m not ashamed that I’ve had my share of sex.” Harry puts a hand on Louis’ knee and squeezes.

“So you are really experienced then?” He already knows the answer. The fact that he’s in his second year at Uni and still hasn’t even gotten a blow job is unheard of. Most people these days are having sex by the time they are preteens. So it’s no surprise when Harry nods.

“You know that it doesn’t matter to me right? I wouldn’t care if you had one hundred partners and I don’t care that you haven’t had any.”

“Yeah.” Louis says because he can’t think of anything else to say.

Louis still feels a sense of awkwardness. “It’s not that I really think that you care about it or anything. I mean, I guess I’m a little apprehensive about that too but its more that…well, I mean. To be honest, people have assumed things about me since I started getting tattoos. They assume that I’m hardcore and rough around the edges. They assume that I’m the kind of guy who has had so much sex; I should have lost count by this time in my life. And,”

Louis sighs heavily but Harry cuts in before he can finish.

“I’m sorry that people have judged you for something as silly as tattoos. And I am so sorry if I ever made you feel like –”

“But that’s just it,” Louis covers his face with his hands, trying to rub away the embarrassment. “I kind of got comfortable in that. I mean, especially with you. I’ve always cared what you thought of me. Even from the moment when I was stupid enough to make a fucking comment on your boots. There’s a part of me that still beats myself up over that moment. Because I want you to think that I’m cool and I want you to think that I’m good. And I don’t you to have to teach me all these things because I want to get you into bed and I want to blow your mind. I don’t want to be a disappointment.”

“Just because I’ve had more sex than you doesn’t mean that I’m automatically like, a sex god or something.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not accurate.” Louis whispers offhandedly. Harry hears it but continues on.

“Well either way, no matter what we do, I’m going to enjoy it. That I can guarantee. I’ll be your guide.” Harry stops what he’s saying, letting his fingers drift over the tattoo on Louis’ forearm. “Your compass.”

Goosebumps erupt from the trail of Harry’s fingers. How can he be so cute and yet so seductive at the same time? Louis gulps audibly because he’s not really exactly sure how to speak at the moment. No one has ever made Louis feel the way that Harry did in the matter of two seconds.

“Tell me,” Harry starts, his voice dropping down to a whisper as he crowds in impossibly close to Louis. “What do you want? What are your boundaries?”

“Everything,” Louis is quick to say. He feels his heart beating louder with every second. “I want everything. No boundaries.”

“Eager.” Harry points out with a smug smile. “It’s okay, your boyfriend is pretty eager too.”

“Fuck,” Louis spits out. His cock twitches in his pants as he feels Harry’s hand tracing the inside of his thigh.

“How about a blow job?” Harry asks, eyebrow quirking up in question.

“Yes,” Louis has never answered a question so quickly in his entire life. “But wait.”

Louis is off the bed and on his knees before he can talk himself out of it. Honestly, he’s nervous as hell. Sure, he’s seen more porn than he probably should have but watching a blow job and actually giving one are two different things.

“Let me suck you off first.”

“Lou are you sure? I wasn’t expecting you to, if you didn’t want to – ”

“C’mon Harry. I’m not that delicate.” Louis rolls his eyes as he starts working to undo the ridiculously tight jeans that Harry has plastered on himself.

When Harry’s jeans are finally out of the way, Louis literally takes a moment to sit back and stare. Harry takes off his shirt and motions for Louis to do the same. He does and then his eyes are back on Harry’s cock. All the signs had been there, the stereotypical signs anyways. Harry’s a giant. He’s got big hands and feet; it would make sense that he have a big cock. But for some reason, Louis is mesmerized.

Harry’s leg twitching is what brings Louis back to reality. He takes hold of the base with an uncertainty. However, he’s determined to give the best blowie that Harry has ever gotten. He’s going to do it so well that Harry won’t need to give any type of direction. Louis takes a breath to wash away his nerves and he just goes for his.

He fits his mouth around Harry, making sure to guard his teeth so that they don’t scrape anything. He sucks lightly at first, trying to get a feel for having something in his mouth. Louis bobs his head down until he feels the tip of Harry’s cock brush against the back of his throat. His immediate reaction is to come back up; he lets Harry slip out of his mouth for just a second before he’s having another go at it.

“That’s it babe, you’re doing good.” Harry offers encouragement with a strained voice.

Louis wants to retort something smart but his mouth is currently full so. This time, Louis goes a little more intensely with it. He moves his hand on the bit that he can’t fit in his mouth because that’s what he’s seen the people in the pornos do. Judging by the way Harry’s hips jut forward, he likes it.

“Could you like – ” Harry starts to say but whatever he meant to say in the rest of his sentence never comes out.

Louis sucks harshly, feeling his own cock twitch. With the movement, he realizes just how hard that he is himself. God, he never thought that he would get _this_ turned on from sucking someone’s dick. Jesus, maybe he’s even more gay than he thought. Those thoughts leave his mind though when Harry’s hips jerk up, causing him to venture into Louis’ throat. Instantly, Louis feels himself gag. It’s definitely not sexy the amount of saliva that is dripping from his mouth but he can’t help it. Louis coughs for an embarrassing amount of time and his eyes are spilling over on their own accord.

“So sorry,” Harry looks genuinely upset with himself. “I didn’t mean to make you gag. Are you alright? We can stop if you want.”

 “There’s no way in hell that I’m stopping.” Louis says through the tears and the rough edge in his throat.

Louis takes Harry back in his hand and this time focuses on Harry’s head, remembering that that’s the most sensitive part on himself.

“Lou, look at me?” Harry asks.

Louis’ eyes flit up to Harry’s, pausing his motions unsurely.

“You can keep – yes fuck – just wanted to see your eyes.” And Louis can certainly see the appeal. Watching the way that Harry’s jaw  keeps clenching and unclenching is pretty much one of the hottest things that Louis has ever witnessed.

He’ll admit, he’s actually just a bit relieved when Harry warns that he’s close. His jaw has started to ache and his bicep is getting tired from constantly moving. Harry tries to pull Louis off but all Louis does is moan at the rough tugs to his hair and stays exactly where he is. When Harry seems to finally get the point that Louis plans to taste him, his body tenses even more. He only lasts a few more seconds and then Louis nearly jolts when he feels Harry’s come hit the back of his throat. Subconsciously, Louis scrunches his nose up at the texture.

“You didn’t have to swallow if you didn’t want to.” Harry says from where he’s laid back on the bed spent.

“I wanted to.” Louis says as he stands. His knees pop and he winces. “The texture was weird was all.”

He sits on the bed, his cock bulging obscenely from his pants. Before there’s even a chance for an awkwardness to settle between them, Harry is sitting up and pushing Louis into the spot that Harry was just lying.

Harry runs his fingertips down Louis’ chest, causing his heart rate to pick up. Finally, he gets to the waistband of Louis’ jeans. As he strips Louis of his bottoms, all Louis can think is how excited he is to finally do this and with Harry. It’s all he can do to keep still when Harry finally gets a hand on him.

“Oh my god,” Louis gasps when he feels how warm Harry’s mouth is. It’s pathetic but he’s already close. Sucking Harry off had been way more of a turn on than he ever thought it would so he’s been hard for quite a while. That coupled with the fact that he’s never felt anything like this before and suddenly, he’s already trying to do anything to make this last longer.

“ _Holy shit_ ,” Louis thinks that he could cry. Harry is doing something with his tongue, Louis’ too far gone to pay enough attention to what he’s actually doing. All he knows is that it feels so good. He comes before he can give Harry a warning.

“Was that good for your first time?” Harry asks Louis.

“Mhm.” His eyes are already droopy but he makes sure to pull Harry up and cuddle into him before he officially falls asleep.

“Night my Hazza.”

“Goodnight my Louis.”

-

Over the next month, things between Louis and Harry only get better. Zayn and Liam relentlessly tease them about how sickeningly cute they are and Harry always, always blushes. Louis can’t help but smile over at his boyfriend though because he’s just so happy, so content.

“Mum,” Louis whispers into his phone one night, just the day after they had officially been together for a month. “I’ve got something to tell you.”

“What is it dear?” Jay’s voice easily laces with concern. “Is it your marks? Louis Tomlinson, you better be actually attending your lectures – ”

“No, that’s not it.” Louis smiles  as he watches Harry’s rhythmic rising and falling of his chest.

“Well what is it then?”

“I’ve got a boyfriend.” Louis barely conceals a giddy laugh that threatens to break through.

Jay lets out an excited scream. “It’s Harry isn’t it?!”

“Yeah,” He admits, smiling at his lap sheepishly. “How’d you know?”

“Well I am friends with you Snapchat, I’ve been seeing all of the ridiculous selfies of the two of you.”

“Oh,” Louis really should have thought about that. He chuckles lightly. “Well anyways, I was wondering if maybe you’d be okay with me bringing him home from Spring Break. It’s okay if you’d rather not, I know you’re busy with the girls and everything.”

“Oh don’t be daft! I’d love to have him over. You know, you’ve never brought home a boy before. He must be pretty special huh?”

For a moment Louis glances down to the boy who is sleeping peacefully in his bed. Harry’s wearing one of Louis' shirt and nothing else and pieces of his bun have started to come out, fanning over his face. Louis’ eyes flit over to the pink slippers by his door, the purple Jack Wells hoodie hanging over the back of his desk chair, the outrageous amount of loose hair ties strewn across literally every surface, and his laptop open to a black and white filter of something hipster. Suddenly, Louis is hit with the reality of just how special Harry is to him.

“Yeah,” Louis says with a soft smile. “He is.”

Louis takes Harry on another date the next day. They’ve gone on some type of date at least once a week since they started dating. Liam says that the novelty of dates will wear off eventually but Louis’ not sure that he believes that. He’s become a bit addicted to Harry dressing up in blazers for their fancy dates and the old football jerseys when they do something laid back. Not to mention the way that Harry’s face lights up when he realizes that Louis put effort into a date. Maybe he’s just addicted to Harry.

Either way, with this date, he’s nervous. As he and Harry take a seat, all he can think of is, is it too early to meet the family? But he’s talked about meeting Harry’s family over the summer! But that’s still a few months off. What will happen if Harry says it’s too early? Will he think that Louis’ trying to move to fast and like get freaked out? What if this causes them to break up?

“Lou?” Harry asks, cutting through the train of horrible thoughts running through his mind. “Drink?”

Oh. The waiter needs their drink order. Okay.

“I’ll have a water.” Louis says after he clears his throat. Harry apparently has already ordered his drink because the waiter smiles with a promise of having the drinks back soon.

“Are you okay, babe?” Harry asks, reaching a hand across the table to rest on top of Louis’. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

For a second, Louis considers asking him right then and there if he wants to come home with Louis for Spring Break. But he decides against it. He’d at least like to have a nice dinner with Harry before the impending rejection.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Louis smiles. “So what are you thinking of ordering?”

All throughout the date, it’s obvious that it’s obvious to Harry that something is up. And with each passing minute, Harry looks more and more nervous himself. Oh god. What if he heard Louis’ conversation with his mum the other day? What if he knows that he’s about to have to turn Louis down? Louis works himself up so much that he doesn’t even realize that they’re leaving Bull and Lost and he still hasn’t asked Harry about coming home with him.

“Hey,” Louis says once he’s seated in the passenger side of Harry’s car. His voice comes out all wonky, he knows. But he had to force himself to start otherwise he knows that he’ll chicken out.

Harry hasn’t started the car, Louis realizes when he finally gains the courage to look over at Harry. He’s just sitting there in the driver’s seat, looking at Louis expectantly. When a few seconds go by and Louis still hasn’t said anything, Harry pushes him to continue.

“Yes?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

“Louis,” Harry’s voice is immediately stricken with panic. “Please, don’t do this before I have to drive, please. Just, can you wait until we get back to the flat? Don’t break up with me in public – ”

“What?!” Louis’ own throat goes tight. “I’m not going to break up with you. Shit, Hazza, is that you were thinking that I was nervous about?”

“Maybe…” Harry trails off. Louis gives him a funny face and he chuckles. “But to be fair you were acting weird and then said we needed to talk.”

“Yeah, I wanted to talk about you maybe coming home with me for Spring Break. Jesus, I don’t want to break up with you.”

“Oh,” Harry deflates as the relief visibly runs through him. “That’s what all this was about? Of course I’ll go home with you. Of course! I want to meet the family that you talk about all the time. Especially your mum. You’re a mummy’s boy. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t want to meet her?”

“Oh my god, I’m not a mummy’s boy.” Louis says, though he can’t fight his smile.

“You call her once a week just so that you can watch The X Factor together over the phone. And you call her every time that you go to Tesco’s just to make sure that you’ve got enough adult-y things in your cart. You also text her about the magazines up by the checkouts nearly every time we go somewhere. Also – ”

“Okay, okay. So I love me mum.” Louis admits. So Harry’s probably right. “And I like talking to her about random shit. She’s one of my favorite people. What’s so bad about that?”

“Nothing’s bad about that.” Harry insists. “I love my mum too.”

“You’re closer to your sister though.” Louis supplies like it’s his own story.

Harry nods and smiles. “Anyway, I’d love to go home with you. You were silly to worry about that, you know that right?”

“Maybe.” Louis blushes lightly as the corners of his mouth pick up.

Louis pulls Harry into a kiss by the curls on the back of his neck. And if they sit there lips attached until the windows are so fogged up that Harry has to turn on the defrost, well, Louis regrets nothing.

-

“You’re sure that your mum is going to like me?” Harry asks for the millionth time as they approach the front door.

Louis doesn’t even have a chance to answer before there are screams and several girls running from the front door. Lottie gets to him first, squishing him in a hug so tight that he has to hold back a wince. Next come the twins, each hugging an opposite side of him. Fiz hugs him from his back, the only spot left open. Louis gets choked up when he glances up and sees his mum, standing in the door, watching all of her kids reunited for the first time since December. He gets distracted by Phoebe who starts crying.

When he looks up from comforting her, he sees that Harry’s already introduced himself to his mum and they’re already laughing about something. The twins seem to notice that there’s someone new so they race off to go talk to Harry. As Louis and his other two sisters make their way up to the door, Lottie turns to him.

“Is he the reason you haven’t come to visit us once this semester?”

“No,” Louis can immediately tell that she’s joking but still. “Haven’t had the money to spend getting here.”

“You could always borrow some from Lottie! She’s got a job now.” Fizzie says excitedly. She’s still got her hand in Louis’ like she’s always done. For just a moment, Louis’ heart smiles. She’s only ten but he’d been afraid that she’d grow up too much without him there.

“Do you now?” Louis looks to his sister, impressed.

“I’ve just been helping Mrs. Betty clean her house. I made twenty pounds last time!”

“Whoa. So dinner is on you?” Louis teases. He then turns to his mum as he steps inside.

“Oh look at you!” She smiles brightly. She pulls him into the tightest hug yet and when she pulls back there are tears in her eyes. “My boy.”

“Oh ma,” Louis blushes, holding back his own emotion. “No tears now.”

“I’ve missed you.” She kisses his forehead sweetly before she moves on. “Why don’t you and Harry take your things upstairs and I’ll put a kettle on. Harry dear, how do you take your tea?”

“Three sugars, no milk please.” Harry smiles politely and Louis wants to kiss him.

As they’re walking up the stairs, Louis can’t help but rave. “They love you. Really.”

“Are you sure?” Harry sets his suitcase down as soon as they enter into Louis’ childhood bedroom.

“Of course they do. I do.” Louis hadn’t realized what was coming out of his mouth until it was already too late. Harry caught it instantly, his eyes went wide and his head snapped to Louis’ direction. Just as Harry opened his mouth to say something though, the girls came stomping into the room.

“Wanna see embarrassing baby pictures of Lou?!” Fiz smiles evilly.

“He used to have a bowl cut.” Lottie adds. “It’s really hilarious.”

“Girls, not now – ” Louis starts but Harry interrupts.

“I’m sure he’s as adorable back then as he is now. I’d love to see them.” Harry shoots Louis a look that Louis can’t really reads but he follows the girls to their mum’s room anyway.

He decides to leave Harry up there, knowing the vast amount of pictures that there are of him as a child. Louis finds his mum in the kitchen, sipping on her own tea as she mixes the tea with the milk in his cup.

“So how was the drive?” She asks. Louis already knows the direction that this conversation is heading. She hands him his cup, still steaming heavily.

“It was good. It went by pretty quick to be honest. You’ve got to come visit me in London sometime, mum. There’s this coffee shop that serves the best tea I’ve ever had in me life. And there’s this restaurant that has the best deserts.”

“I’d love to darling.” She sips on her tea. “So how’s – ”

Louis has a feeling that he knows what she’s about to ask but she gets interrupted by a loud crash and then a “Muuuuuum!” so she never gets the chance to ask. Louis smiles to himself when he hears the yelling start. His family has always been a little chaotic and dysfunctional but he loves it. Not two minutes later, Harry wonders into the kitchen. Louis smiles apologetically and hands him his tea.

“I told you they can be little demons.” Louis says.

“No, they’re great. Lottie and I were talking about where I bought my coat and Daisy and Phoebe started wrestling. They knocked over a vase. I figured I’d get out of your mum’s way. The tea’s really good.”

“Welcome to the chaos that is the Tomlinson family.”

“Um, about what you said,” Harry says and Louis’ throat goes dry. “Um. Me too.”

They kiss up against the counter until Lottie comes in and tells them to get a room.

They’re watching Frozen on the girls’ (and Harry’s) request and when Let It Go comes on and Louis is the only one singing, he glances down to find that they’ve all fallen asleep on the couch. Louis takes the twins up first. It’s a bit of a struggle but he manages to get them into their bunk beds eventually. Fiz is next. She drools a bit on his shoulder and it nearly wakes her up when he flinches. But he gives her a goodnight  kiss on the forehead and heads down to get Lottie.

He’s in the middle of picking Lottie up when she wakes up grumpily.

“I can walk you know.” She struggles out of his hold and storms down the hall. Only a few seconds later, she comes running back and hugs him. “I missed you.”

She’s gone again before Louis can say anything else. Then his attention turns to the only one left. Harry’s mouth is hung open slightly and he’s somehow managed to lose one of his socks. It’s the most precious sight that Louis’ ever laid eyes on. Briefly he considers trying to carry Harry up the stairs but Harry is significantly taller than his sisters are and he’d feel bad if he accidentally woke Harry up by banging a limb on something. So he settles for waking him up and guiding his sleepy form up the stairs to Louis’ room.

“Lou,” Harry says once he’s all tucked in on Louis’ bed. “Come to bed.”

“I will in a bit, sweet.” Louis says. “I’m going to go help me mum finish washing up the dishes.”

Harry’s asleep again by the time that he closes his door behind him.

When he steps into the kitchen, Jay scolds him.

“Why are you up? You must be exhausted from the long day.”

“I wanted to come help out.” Louis says, grabbing dishes from the rack to put back into the cabinets. “You’re probably exhausted too. Don’t you work a night shift tomorrow?”

“No, they’ve got me doing day shifts now. ‘ve been doing them for a few weeks now. So I’ll get the girls up for school in the morning and we’ll all be out of the house by eight. You’ll have the house to yourselves.” She gives him a look and Louis’ cheeks fill with color.

“Mum, don’t.” Louis shakes his head.

“I’m just saying. I was young once, I remember what it’s like.”

“Oh my god, stop.” He pleads. He doesn’t know why she always feels the need to overshare.

“You were conceived at an empt – ”

“TMI mum, jesus!” Louis covers his ears but he still hears his mother’s laugh. “Why?”

“Because it’s entertaining embarrassing you. Buuut,” She draws out the word and Louis should have seen it coming really. “It’s more fun embarrassing you when I bring up that lovely boyfriend of yours.”

“Um,” Louis clears his throat as he puts up the last dish. He feels his face heating up. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t ask my opinion but I’ll give it to you anyways – ”

“ – of course – ”

“ – I think he’s absolutely wonderful.” She lights up. “He introduced himself to me like a proper gentleman. And he’s great with your sisters. And oh my gosh, Louis, you should see the way he looks at you when you’re not looking!” She squeals.

“Mum, are you fangirling over my boyfriend?”

“What? I can’t be excited that you’ve finally brought home a boy? And a cute one who’s good to you at that! I nearly had to bribe him to convince him that I didn’t need help with the dishes. I approve if that wasn’t already obvious.”

“Thanks.” Louis’ blushing probably more than he ever has in his entire life but her words mean the world to him. “That means a lot.”

He’s always been a very family oriented person. Part of finding The One for him included someone who meshed well with his family. Someone who his family loves and someone who loves his family. He always envisioned Christmases where his husband would tease the girls and bake with his mum like he’d always been a part of the family. So her approving is really what this whole trip had been about. Not that he’d really been worried, anyone who meets Harry is instantly charmed.

“Okay, now run up and get some rest. I love you Boobear.” She smiles and kisses him on his cheek.

“Love you too mum.”

The next morning, Louis wakes up to his alarm that he’d forgotten to turn off. It’s nearly nine in the morning. Louis groans thinking that he’s got to get to class soon before he remembers that he’s on break. And then he remembers that he and Harry are in the house. Alone.

Louis smirks to himself as he watches Harry sleeping in his bed next to him. They’ve already talked about doing sexual things to each other while the other is asleep and they’ve agreed that neither of them mind. In fact, it’s become their favorite thing when they have the time and energy. Which most of the time they don’t, but today they do.

He squeezes Harry through his briefs, finding that he’s already half hard, like he usually is in his sleep. Harry gasps in his sleep, subconsciously parting his legs a fraction of an inch. Louis rubs him through his briefs for a few moments, watching in fascination as waves of undisturbed pleasure pass through Harry’s facial features.

Eventually though, he pulls the briefs back, letting Harry’s cock spring free and slap onto his stomach. He kisses the tip and then lets Harry’s cock fall back onto  his stomach. Louis struggles, pulling the briefs off of Harry but finally, after a frustrating moment or two, they are gone. Harry is still breathing deeply enough that Louis knows he’s still sleeping.

Louis jumps off of the bed and searches through his top dresser drawer, where he’s always kept his lube. Once he finds it, he settles himself on the bed again. They’ve only done this one other time and he’s already addicted to the way that Harry completely changes when something is inside of him. Of all the things that they’ve tried so far, this is his favorite. Harry’s so tight and warm and responsive and fuck.

Louis spreads the lube onto two of his fingers. When his middle finger circles lightly over Harry’s hole, Harry gasps and spreads his legs. Louis glances up to see if his boy has woken up yet but Harry’s still got his eyes closed and his mouth hung open. There’s a bit of drool gathering at the corner of his mouth and Louis gets the urge to kiss it away. But, instead he slowly pushes his finger inside Harry. His hips cant up as if they’re trying to bring in more.  He lets Harry adjust for a minute and then he pulls back and thrusts his finger back in.

“Louis,” Harry says, looking a bit disoriented when he tries to sit up and a lot turned on when he realizes what’s going on. “Fuck.”

“Good morning baby.” Louis says, smug as fuck.

“M – Morning.” Harry breathes, his legs falling open even more.

He picks up the pace and avoids Harry’s prostate because this time he wants to use three fingers if Harry’s okay with it. And if he starts touching Harry’s prostate, he won’t be able to stop himself from making Harry come. Even without the prostate stimulation though, Harry is still loving it. His hands rub over his face and then grasp onto the Spiderman bed sheets. His hips are still turned upwards and his cock has blurted some precome onto his stomach. He’s so hot like this, Louis is still confused on how he ended up with someone like Harry.

“Louis, please, more.” Harry moans quietly.

Louis adds another finger, slowly pushing his index finger in with his middle finger. Harry’s so tight around his two fingers, and when his hole clenches around them, they squeeze together in the most agonizingly sexy way. Harry lets out another moan and then catches his bottom lip between his teeth. God, Louis wants to curl his fingers and search for his prostate. But he refrains again. He starts off a bit slowly with the two fingers but it doesn’t take long for Harry to adjust.

Louis watches the blank space on his left arm as he fingers his boyfriend. He really wants to fill the space with everything Harry. Maybe one day he’ll get a pair of pink boots on his wrist. Or an umbrella to signify all the times that Harry’s brought one to him when he’s out and it starts pouring. Or maybe even a vine that starts around his wrist and goes up his arm. As the vine goes up, there’s a bud and then a flower partially bloomed, all the way until the flower is fully bloomed and beautiful.

“Louis,” The beautiful boy next to him moans out, cutting through Louis’ train of thought. “Please can I come?”

Whoa. The last time they did this, Louis had gotten prostate happy and Harry didn’t even have a moment to warn that he was going to come, let alone ask if he could. Something floods through Louis’ veins and his cock twitches in his pajama pants. Harry asked fucking permission to come. Holy shit.

“Um,” Louis clears his throat. “Can I try three?”

Harry is visibly confused for a moment but Louis can tell the moment that he gets what Louis is trying to ask. He moans so loud, the sounds burns itself into Louis’ brain.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Harry is nothing if not eager.

Louis barely contains his thrill of excitement. He pulls his fingers out slowly, much to Harry’s displeasure. It takes a moment for him to locate the lube again but once he does, he resituates himself between Harry’s spread legs, sitting on his knees. Before he puts more lube on his fingers though, he shoves down his own pants, his cock finally being free. Louis tugs himself off just for a few moments of relief. But then he’s focusing back on Harry. Louis uses extra lube this time and he’s extra careful when he presses his fingers in. He nearly stops when he sees Harry tense up but he urges Louis to continue.

Louis decides that he’s had enough fun and now he really wants to see his boy come undone. He curls his fingers and immediately starts searching for the spot that he knows drives Harry crazy. For the first few thrusts of his fingers, it’s a bit frustrating because he’s obviously not finding it. However, when he finally does, he wishes he could have recorded Harry’s reaction.

“Louu,” Harry moans delicately, his whole body jolting with pleasure. “God, please, Lou. I – I’m gonna come. Please make me come.”

Louis himself moans at Harry’s comment. God, he wants to do so many things to Harry. He shakes his head to rid himself of those thoughts and focuses back on what he’s currently doing to Harry. Louis can feel the little nub inside Harry so he presses against it, making Harry whine and start thrashing from side to side. He did that last time they did this too, right before he came. And again, Louis wants to like, hold him still or something. Not because it bothers him that Harry moves around during sex but just, he wants to like. He’s not even sure, it just turns him on. Louis merely gets a hand around Harry’s cock and he’s coming everywhere, body jerking through his orgasm as he grips at the wrist of the hand that’s got fingers inside him. Harry’s still making little whimpering sounds when he realizes that Louis hasn’t come yet.

“Can I,” Louis starts asking without even realizing that the words are coming out of his mouth. “Inside you. Can I – ”

“Yes.” Harry says, not even letting Louis finish what he was going to say. But it’s okay because Louis was about to start rambling and if Harry hadn’t stopped him, he might’ve tried to do something stupid like go wash the dishes.

“I don’t have a condom…” Louis trails off regretfully.

“Both of us are clean. I’m okay with it if you are.” Harry’s still blissed out but Louis trusts that he would tell him if it were too much.

“Yeah, okay.” Louis finds the lube again and spreads the rest of the bottle onto his cock. Finally getting attention on his cock feels so good, he almost gets lost in fucking his hand.

“Are you sure you’re ready to lose your virginity?” Harry asks suddenly.

“Honestly, I would’ve given it up to you after our first date in your room. Fuck, probably even before that. But right now, in my home, with you in my bed – it’s perfect.”

Harry nods. Louis leans down to kiss him and doesn’t stop kissing him as he lines up and slowly starts pushing into Harry’s hole. For a moment, Louis crumples on top of Harry because it feels _that_ good. Harry’s so tight around him, he’s squeezing his cock like nothing he’s ever felt before. But Louis regains his composure when Harry murmurs,

“Move, please.”

His first thrust is careful, unsure. But he watches Harry’s face cloud over with pleasure and something in him just snaps. He picks up the pace and it’s not long before Harry’s hands are running wild. It’s like he can’t seem to decide if he wants to be pulling Louis’ hair (which Louis is _so_ okay with), or if he wants to be pulling up the bed sheets. So Louis, without even thinking, grabs his hands and holds them above Harry’s head on the bed. And Harry lets him keep his hands there.

“Shit,” Louis groans when he realizes that Harry has kept his hands where Louis placed them even after Louis has to let go to readjust Harry’s legs.

Harry’s submissiveness strikes Louis, instantly making his hips stutter to a stop. He’s hit with this image of turning Harry over and holding him by the hair as he fucks him and Harry will just take it. He’s just take whatever Louis decides to give. He wants that so bad. Fuck.

“Louis?”

“What? Oh.” Louis realizes that he’s stopped moving and Harry’s looking at him in concern. But his fucking hands still haven’t fucking moved.

“Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

“Can I – ” Louis starts to ask and then he gets himself psyched out. What if Harry isn’t into that? What if Harry says no and it ruins the mood? What if –

“Into what? What do you want to try baby?” Harry asks and Louis realizes with horror that he’d been talking out loud.

“Oh. Um. Like.” Fuck. Louis needs to step up his confidence. He takes a deep breath and just asks. “Can I turn you over and hold you by your hair?”

Harry’s face clouds over. “I was wondering when you’d realize that you like things a little rough. Turn me over then, Louis.”

“How’d you know?” He has to ask before he gets too wrapped up.

“It wasn’t hard to gather. You like when I pull your hair, you looked like you were gonna come when I accidentally fucked into your throat, and you have always hated me telling you what to do. But it just now hit me with the hands thing that you don’t just like it rough, you like the control.”

Louis lets out a breath, Harry is so right it makes his entire body clench with the thought. Harry notices.

“Is that what you want, Lou?” Harry asks, somehow still keeping his tone sexy and almost fucking innocent. “You want me to turn over and let you dominate me? You want the control? Well then take it from me. It’s yours. I’m yours.”

Louis can’t even speak, Harry has rendered him speechless. He pulls out of Harry as slowly as he can manage and then he flips the boy onto his belly.

“On your knees.” Louis’ voice comes out a bit wonky, like he hasn’t fit into his dominance yet. Like he’s not sure how to do this yet. Even still, Harry doesn’t hesitate to obey.

Louis shoves back in, probably a little too hard but Harry doesn’t seem to mind it; he just takes it, his head lifting up to let out a strangled moan. Louis’ hand his shaking as it travels up Harry’s back. He’s so ready but at the same time, he’s nervous that he’ll be too much and accidentally hurt Harry.

“Love, promise me you’ll tell me if it’s too much.” Louis finds himself saying as his fingertips meet the ends of Harry’s hair.

“Yes. You too.”

Louis nods even though Harry can’t see him. But that’s all the confirmation that he needs. His hand tangles in Harry’s hair and he pulls. Harry moans and perks his bum out. Louis wants to spank him but he doesn’t because they haven’t talked about that yet and he doesn’t have the strength to wait any longer to pound into Harry. His hips are audibly smacking against Harry’s bum, causing a jiggle in his tiny bum cheeks. Louis smiles at that. God, he’s so in love with this boy.

“Yes, Louis, fuck, yes.” Harry’s letting out a litany of whines, louder and more frequent than Louis’ ever heard and it’s so fucking hot. He’s not sure how he’s lasted this long but he’s sure that he’s not going to last much longer.

“Gonna come,” Louis grunts out between thrusts. “Gonna come all over your sexy arse.”

Louis realizes then that Harry’s jerking himself off, that he’s gotten hard again from this. He reaches around and pulls Harry’s hand away, replacing it with his own. The rhythm of his hips goes a little off but that’s fine because the way that Harry’s back arches makes up for it.

After a few more seconds, Louis convinces himself to pull out and let go of Harry’s hair. And he does just in time to get his come all over Harry’s arse. His hand drops from Harry’s cock, which is still hard, but he gets lost in the fascination of what Harry’s arse looks like with his come. However Louis sees Harry’s cock hanging between his legs, looking almost painful and he gets an idea.

He leans forward, his tongue tracing over where his come is covering Harry’s arse, swallowing the bits that he picks up along the way. Harry is whining, probably getting a bit impatient. Each cheek gets cleaned before Louis uses his thumbs to spread Harry apart. His hole looks red and more open than Louis’ ever seen it. Louis literally cannot help it when he leans forward and presses a gentle kiss to his hole.

They’ve talked about rimming before. They’ve never done it because Louis’ been a little nervous about it. But here in this moment, he wants nothing more. Still though, he has to ask,

“Too sore?” The last thing that he wants to do is to hurt his baby.

“No, just, gentle.” Harry says. His voice is fucking wrecked. If Louis hadn’t just come harder than he ever has, he’d probably be getting hard again just from the sound of Harry’s voice.

Gently, Louis presses another kiss to Harry’s hole. It flutters beneath his touch and Harry whimpers. The first touch of Louis’ tongue is a little odd. There’s still lube and bits of Louis’ come but it doesn’t bother him nearly as much as it might someone else. At the thought, Louis possessively holds Harry’s cheeks harder and actually starts moving his tongue around with intent.

Harry’s rim is very sensitive, Louis realizes this pretty quickly. He’s constantly shuddering and letting out a stream of whimpers. And his hole is positively quaking from the attention. It’s not long before Harry is letting out sobs and dropping to where his face is mashed into the bed, his arms laying limp.

Louis’ getting spit everywhere. It’s all over his cheeks and on his thumbs that are still holding Harry apart. But he can’t stop, he eats Harry out like he knows exactly what he’s doing. When Louis sees Harry’s hand go for his cock, Louis wants to stop him. He wants to see if he can make Harry come just from this. He pulls away just slightly, starting to say it. And then Harry lets out another sob and Louis can’t bring himself to make his boyfriend wait any longer. So instead, he licks at his hole with a new fervor, going as fast as his tongue muscles will allow. It makes his tongue ache a bit but it’s worth it to watch the goosebumps erupt on Harry’s skin as his back arches, and he shoves his bum harder onto Louis’ tongue.

“Louis, oh my god,” Harry wails out and then he collapses, probably exhausted from his second orgasm.

Louis presses one last kiss to his hole, thriving in the way that Harry jerks and then stays still, like he’d honestly let Louis keep going if he wanted to. But Louis doesn’t, he trails kisses on each knob of Harry’s spine, going up until he’s kissing sweetly at Harry’s neck.

“I love you,” He whispers into Harry’s ear. Louis’ stomach clenches with nerves. They technically already admitted that they love each other but they haven’t actually said the words yet. Until now. Harry turns his head and smiles.

“I love you too.”

They nap for a little after that and Louis attempts to make Harry breakfast. They end up going to a McDonalds but Harry looked like he could cry with happiness when Louis came upstairs with a tray of underdone pancakes, black bacon, and black toast to match. Eventually the girls and his mum get home and all of them go out to dinner at Louis’ favorite restaurant in Doncaster. Jay pretends not to notice the way that Harry has trouble sitting down.

The rest of break goes well. Louis comes back feeling well rested in every sense of the word. And dammit, he’s excited to see Liam, Zayn, and Niall again. It’s weird how just a few short months ago, he didn’t even know these people but he can’t imagine his life without them.

Niall tackles him when they  walk through the door. Liam smiles so big that his eyes crinkle and Zayn laughs so hard at one of Harry’s jokes that his tongue does that thing it does when he laughs really hard where it just pokes out a little from his mouth.

“I missed you fucks.” Louis says with a smile of his own.

Coming back to school after his breaks in Donny felt like just that – coming back to school. He was coming back to a room. But here, he’s coming home.

-

The time flies by and before Louis realizes it, and certainly before he’s ready for it, exams are upon them. Both he and Harry are stressed and it doesn’t mix well. He wasn’t ready for the day that they both snapped.

It started out shitty and didn’t get any better.

Harry wakes up later than he had planned to, the Saturday before the week of exams. He shoots up so quick that it wakes Louis up.  And then he jumps out of bed, attempting to run into his own room. However, his foot gets caught in a random pair of sweatpants that were haphazardly discarded last night in the heat of the moment.

Harry falls to the ground pretty hard. Louis is off of his bed in seconds, his hands reach out to help Harry up.

“Are you okay?” Louis asks, concerned.

“No,” Harry says, voice gone cold.

“D – Did you hurt yourself?” The foreign tone of Harry’s voice makes Louis waiver.

“I fucking could’ve. If it weren’t for your complete lack of responsibility. I mean honestly, it takes two fucking seconds to throw your shit in a laundry basket.”

“I’m … sorry?” Louis wasn’t sure what the fuck had crawled up Harry’s arse and died but if he yells at him one more time –

“Yeah whatever. Just fucking go back to bed. I’m going to go – ”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Louis yells, his anger bubbling to the surface. “Don’t get all pissy with me, I didn’t do anything to you.”

“Oh of course.” Harry mutters.

“If you’re going to talk shit, at least have the courage to say it loud.” Louis’ voice is getting louder by the second.

“You want me to say it louder?” Harry is nearly screaming at this point. “I think that you have no right to talk to me about courage!”

“And why is that, since you seem to know everything!” Louis gets in Harry’s face, not backing down even though Harry is taller than him and looking intimidating as hell.

Harry takes a dangerously calm breath and then, “The only reason you’re here is because you didn’t have the courage to stay there! You were too _afraid_ to stay. So please, tell me how _fucking courageous_ you were!”

Louis has nothing to say. He realizes when tears spring into his eyes that this is the first fight that he and Harry have ever had. Not only as a couple but as friends in general. And it’s the worst feeling he’s ever felt.

“GET OUT!” Louis screams, his voice cracking with emotion.

Harry still looks pissed but he seems to have realized that he stepped over the line.

“And,” Louis adds when Harry’s out his door. He picks up on of the pink slippers and throws it out the door at Harry who has turned around. “Take this!”

Harry looks stunned but Louis keeps going. Throwing each item of Harry’s that he sees, starting to cry. “And your stupid hoodie! A-and your stupid indie cd, that no one fucking likes by the way! Take these stupid fucking flowers! This chocolate you gave me sucks! And – and this…”

Louis trails off as the tears blur his vision.

“Louis,” Harry sounds like he’s started crying himself.

“No,” Louis says when Harry starts to step closer. “Stay back.”

When he sees that Harry’s not in the way any longer, he slams the door as hard as he can. As Louis turns back around, he sees the sweatpants on the floor and breaks down. All this over a stupid pear of sweatpants.

An hour goes by before there’s a knock on his door.

“Go away, Harry.” Louis says miserably even though he wants nothing more than Harry to come in anyways and make it better. But no. Louis’ stubborn.

“It’s not Harry,” Comes Niall’s voice. “Can I come in?”

Louis doesn’t answer but Niall takes that as a yes.

“Hey,” He says carefully. “You okay mate?”

“Does it look like I’m okay?” Louis retorts.

“You know,” Niall says as he shuts the door and comes to sit next to Louis on the floor. “I remember Zayn and Liam’s first fight last year. It was brutal. I’ve only seen Zayn cry three times, twice from tattoos and the other time was this fight. I don’t remember what it was about but they laugh about it now. They said some horrible shit to each other – ”

“Is this supposed to make me feel better?”

“I don’t know, honestly.” Niall says. “All I know is that if they can make it through that, you and Harry can make it through this.”

“I know,” Louis says, somewhat panicked. “It’s not like we’re over or anything, I’m just mad.”

“Oh I know.” Niall laughs. “I saw you throw all that shit.”

Louis laughs, feeling ridiculous that he did that. “I guess you’re right.”

“I know,” Niall sighs, making himself chuckle. Louis smiles because this boy is never not happy. “I know you don’t want to talk to Harry but if I were you, I’d at least tell Harry because he’s been freaking out.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s been wailing on about how you’re done with him, that you want to break up. Lad’s driving himself a bit mad. I even teared up a little just watching him.”

“What makes him think that I’m done?!” Louis asks, throat going tight with panic.

“Well you did tell him to leave and threw all of his shit out with him.”

“No,” Louis whispers, and then says again, louder this time. “No, no, no.”

Louis’ up so fast, it nearly makes him dizzy. He runs. The door to Harry’s room slams open, nearly hitting him when it bounces off the wall. As soon as he sees Harry, he is filled with guilt. Both Liam and Zayn are hugging him, trying to comfort him.

“Louis,” Harry croaks. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for what I said. I was mad and – no there’s no excuse. Please, I’m so sorry, forgive me. I don’t want to be done. I love you – ”

“It’s okay, I love you too.” Louis gets teared up just seeing Harry like this. He crawls onto the bed, barely noticing that Zayn and Liam leave the room. “We’re not done, we’re not. I egged you on. I knew you were upset. I should’ve just let you go study and cool off. I’m sorry.”

“But, I can’t believe I said that to you.” Harry clearly feels guilty and Louis knows that he’ll be apologizing for this for a long time. “You’re so courageous. It was courageous of you to recognize that you weren’t happy with your life. So you just picked up and left in the middle of the year, away from your family, your little sisters. Louis, you’re so brave. You’re brave to continue getting tattoos, doing something you love, even after you faced adversity. And you’re brave for coming here and living with four other people that you’ve never met before. And – and you’re brave for loving me, someone who will never deserve you.”

Louis kisses him. He kisses him hard. And when he pulls back, “Don’t ever say that about yourself again. You do deserve me. You deserve the entire fucking world. We both said and did things we didn’t mean. I threw your stuff at you for christ’s sake.”

They both giggle at that and Harry kisses him.

“I love you so much.” Harry says when he pulls back. “God, that was the worst. I thought for an hour that you weren’t mine anymore and it was the most miserable hour of my entire life.”

“It was never over. I’m yours, always will be.”

“No matter what?”

“No matter what.”

Louis rides Harry for the first time that night. It was uncomfortable at first but after he got used to it, he definitely liked it. They shower together afterwards and then Louis rests on the couch while Harry makes them dinner, fajitas. Harry turns on a romantic comedy and Louis doesn’t even have it in him to make fun of Harry for it. Because he secretly loves it, loves Harry.

As the credits roll, Harry shakes Louis awake. Apparently he’d fallen asleep at some point during the movie. He moves to pick up his blanket when,

“Zayn, yes, oh my god more!”

The two of them look to each other and quietly chuckle. As soon as they’re behind the safety of Louis’ door, they burst out laughing.

“I wonder if that’s what we sounded like earlier.” Louis says through his chuckles.

“You know,” Harry adds. “Of all this time living with them, I’ve never heard them having sex before. We probably like, made them realize how much they love each other or something.”

“Aww.” Louis coos. “Well our fight made me realize how much I love you if that means anything.”

“It means everything. You mean everything.”

-

A few months later, Louis and Zayn decide to ring in the new school year the right way. By escaping and telling no one where they went. By the time they  get back to the flat just after it’s turned dark, there’s a search party in their new flat.

“What the fuck?!” Liam yells as soon as he sees the pair enter.

Harry’s head whips around so fast, Louis’ afraid he gave himself whiplash. And then he sees.

“You have bangs.” Is the first thing Louis says because they all know that Louis’ brain to mouth filter is shattered when he’s surprised.

“Do you like them?” Harry asks with a blush. “I got it done earlier, before I realized that you and Zayn had went MIA, you little shits! Where have you been? Why did you not answer any of our calls?”

“Well,” Louis looks over to Zayn and they both smile at each other as they turn to their boyfriends. Louis holds up his arm and that’s when  Harry notices the bandage.

“Let me see!”  Harry slowly starts pulling back the bandage. And then he gasps.

He reveals the tattoo that’s hidden beneath. A little pair of pink boots.

Harry jumps into his arms, kissing him hard. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” Louis smiles. “Oh and yes, I love your bangs.”

Liam cries over the tattoo that Zayn got, _This is a beautiful start to a lifelong love letter_ ; lyrics to their song.

Louis looks around his flat, seeing everything that he ever wanted. Perrie and Jesy are on the couch talking animatedly about something. Jade’s giving Niall a piggy back ride the kitchen, Liam is still kissing Zayn, and Harry. Harry’s in his arms and that’s the way that he wants it always.


End file.
